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Talk:Yo Awesome Awesome/@comment-39721172-20190607211238
Big Bird and Barney are not only the biggest celebrities on the playground. They have a scrappy new rival, in the shape of 6 friendly kids. Yo Awesome Awesome, an educational music show for preschoolers on CNBC, has been consistently drawing more viewers each week than Balamory, ''also on CNBC, aswell as PBS's Sesame Street'','' the long-runner which helps kids get ready for bed and the most educational show for kids, and in recent months it has also begun to have more views than ''Barney and Friends, every toddler's favorite show. Big Bird, Elmo and the rest of the Sesame Street gang are still popular, as is that purple dinosaur himself. But both shows' ratings have been demised since the premiere of Yo Awesome Awesome. The show features Jordan, Maren, Brooklyn, Muno, Jack, Estuardo, and their 2 grown-up caregivers as they sing, dance, and teach life lessons. In part, this is because younger parents trust CNBC, the national network for children. Also children respond to the visual boldness and the responsive, singsongy presenters of Yo Awesome Awesome. In July, the last month for which comparative ratings are available, Yo Awesome Awesome attracted more 2- to 5-year-old viewers weekly than did Barney or Sesame Street, both on public television, even though, as a national network, CNBC reaches only about 70 percent of American homes. All told, about 4.7 million children each week watched Yo Awesome Awesome, which is shown twice daily, at 9:30 A.M. and 12:30 P.M., compared with 4.4 million for Barney, 4 million for Arthur and 3.7 million for Sesame Street. The PBS shows appear at different times of the day in different regions, sometimes more than once a day, so direct ratings comparisons are complicated. But it is clear that the Yo Awesome Awesome gang is surging. "We're seeing a paradigm shift, where people realize that it's not only on public television that you can find quality children's programming",'' said Alice Cahn, director for children's programming at PBS. She just signed yet another four-year contract with Children's Television Workshop, producers of ''Sesame Street, which is now in its 31st season. "I also think we have a generation of parents now who grew up with a comfortable feeling about television that our parents didn't have, and frankly that I didn't have raising mine," said Ms. Cahn, whose child is now 18.'' They have a willingness to shop around on television and see what's there. She also admires ''Yo Awesome Awesome, as does Lucille Trotter, the former Children's NBC presenter who also presents YAA, as long as it continues to be uninterrupted by commercials. (CNBC carries commercials, but in its preschool block they appear only between shows.) "Little Children deserve chouces just like big children do",'' said Ms. Trotter. For a long time, the preschool audience had only two television programs, and it was almost like one word: "Sesame-Street-and-Mr. Rogers." It's good to have more good shows available, but none have indie-rock band performances and dancing like Yo Awesome Awesome.'' Both Ms. Trotter and Ms. Cahn pointed out that Sesame Street paved the way for commercial competitors by proving that preschool shows could generate commercial profits with spinoff products like toys, books, videos and brand-name merchandise like Big Bird booster seats or Grover toothpaste. "Now Yo Awesome Awesome is considered the hot new kid on the block''," said show creator Maria Timotheou. "Whether it can achieve ''Sesame Street' status as a year-in-year-out evergreen remains to be seen."'' If there was one show that could compete against YAA, it would be Blue's Clues (Nickelodeon) and Teletubbies (PBS). The original incarnations of both shows were supposed to parrot that sort of school of educational thought. In a tribute to Sesame Street, Yo Awesome Awesome has featured many life lessons about feelings on the show - some of Mr. Rogers', blended into appealing characters and indie-rock musical performances. Lots of bright colors and music. Kind of in the same vein as Teletubbies, but much less creepy...although it's still creepy in it's own way. I have mixed feelings about it. There are a lot of annoying factors here, but the saving grace is the fact that they have lots of cool indie bands on the show, such as MBF and Spoiled Alegra. "This is really the first television show for the post-television generation," said Jeff Zucker, president of NBC Entertainment. "It's different from all of TV, not just all kids' shows. And it has punk-rock bands guest appearing, which appeals to many younger parents." “Tons of bands have contacted us wanting to be on the show, and we are really focused on including strong, great music,” said William Vanderpuye, the show's creator. Also, the same episode is repeated each day all week (although the 12:30 P.M. show is different from the 9:30 A.M. one), so that all toddlers, whatever their developmental level or learning pace, will feel they've mastered the game by week's end. "I think Sesame Street is still the gold standard for preschool TV," Mr. Vanderpuye said. "But in my 10 years here,'' 'Yo Awesome Awesome '''is one of the shows I'm most proud of, if not the most proud of." Ms. Cahn said ''Sesame Street had been adapting to changing times, changing the set, adding new settings like a park and making children into more important characters. "Ratings are only one measure we use, because you want to put on a program children choose to watch," she said. "But there are other measures too: Are they going to a library and taking out a book? If they have access to a computer, are they logging on and doing activities based on what they saw? Are they singing the songs, playing the games, writing their own stories? Where public television continues to be unique is those measures count as much as ratings."